HOUSES I HAVE LIVED IN - MAKU MAKU 1981-1982
I lived down this drive way when I was about four-years-old for around two years. It is the last time I remember my folks being together. Mako Mako sits on the borders of the Manawatu, Wairarapa and Horowhenua; meaning it is in the middle of nowhere and rent is very cheap.On Sunday I drove past for the first time in over twenty years. I stopped to take some photos. The old house was no longer there but the old barn was. Some crazy-eyed guy ran out of the house twisted and paranoid that I was a cop scouting the area for crops. After I reassured him I was only a civilian he suggested I be on my way.
Cheap rental prices are why my parents decided to move to this place. We had been living in a house-truck for the past few years and this was the only area in the country they could afford. They rented the house off a mad farmer who lived down the road.
My memories of the place are pretty vague; brain flashes at best. Here is what I do remember:
-We had to use an umbrella when walking down the drive way in spring because the magpies would attack from all the trees.
-I was bitten under the eye by a dog and had three stitches. I still have a tiny scar.
-I would be angry when my dad would head out in the evenings with his .22 rifle because I knew what we would be eating that night, rabbit or hare stew. I hated it but we were so poor we couldn’t afford meat.
-When my brother was at school –he is two years older than me- mum and I would hitch hike into town for groceries. I remember sitting in a huge tanker truck and the driver let me honk the horn.
-we caught some ferrets, which scared the crap out of me, and traded them in for some pet rabbits at the pet shop -ironic since we also ate rabbits
-There was an old broken red tractor behind the barn that me and my brother would spend hours playing on.
After Maku Maku we moved to Palmerston North.
